None of them, though, except Vance, went as far as to say to the president that war was a “terrible idea,” according to the report. The president assumed that Iran would surrender before it got to that point, according to the report. While Caine gave Trump these warnings, “at no point during the deliberations did the chairman directly tell the president that war with Iran was a terrible idea,” the Times reports. But by this point, Trump had “effectively made up his mind weeks earlier, several of his advisers said,” according to the newspaper. “He said that as a Marine veteran he had known an American service member killed by Iran years earlier,” the Times reports.

Source: The Times April 08, 2026 19:31 UTC